Refractive index changes and nuclear activation upon irradiation of lithium niobate crystals with different low-mass,high-energy ions

Refractive index changes \(\Delta n\) in lithium niobate crystals upon irradiation with high-energy protons, deuterons, \(^3\) He, and \(^4\alpha \) particles (up to 14 MeV/nucleon) are created, and the accompanying, unwanted nuclear activation is investigated. The measurements give answers to the question which ion is the best choice depending on the requirements: largest values of \(\Delta n\) are achieved with \(^4\alpha \) particles, low nuclear activation with deuterons, or the best tradeoff between \(\Delta n\) and activation with \(^3\) He, respectively.     

A flexible scintillation light apparatus for rare event searches

Compelling experimental evidences of neutrino oscillations and their implication that neutrinos are massive particles have given neutrinoless double beta decay ( \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) ) a central role in astroparticle physics. In fact, the discovery of this elusive decay would be a major breakthrough, unveiling that neutrino and antineutrino are the same particle and that the lepton number is not conserved. It would also impact our efforts to establish the absolute neutrino mass scale and, ultimately, understand elementary particle interaction unification. All current experimental programs to search for \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) are facing with the technical and financial challenge of increasing the experimental mass while maintaining incredibly low levels of spurious background. The new concept described in this paper could be the answer which combines all the features of an ideal experiment: energy resolution, low cost mass scalability, isotope choice flexibility and many powerful handles to make the background negligible. The proposed technology is based on the use of arrays of silicon detectors cooled to 120 K to optimize the collection of the scintillation light emitted by ultra-pure crystals. It is shown that with a 54 kg array of natural CaMoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors of this type it is possible to yield a competitive sensitivity on the half-life of the \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) of \(^{100}\) Mo as high as \(\sim \) \(10^{24}\)  years in only 1 year of data taking. The same array made of \(^{40}\) Ca \(^{\mathrm {nat}}\) MoO \(_4\) scintillation detectors (to get rid of the continuous background coming from the two neutrino double beta decay of \(^{48}\) Ca) will instead be capable of achieving the remarkable sensitivity of \(\sim \) \(10^{25}\)  years on the half-life of \(^{100}\) Mo \(\beta \beta 0\nu \) in only 1 year of measurement.     

Optimal N-Point Configurations on the Sphere: “Magic” Numbers and Smale’s 7th Problem

This paper inquires into the concavity of the map \(N\mapsto v_s(N)\) from the integers \(N\ge 2\) into the minimal average standardized Riesz pair-energies \(v_s(N)\) of \(N\) -point configurations on the sphere \(\mathbb {S}^2\) for various \(s\in \mathbb {R}\) . The standardized Riesz pair-energy of a pair of points on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) a chordal distance \(r\) apart is \(V_s(r)= s^{-1}\left( r^{-s}-1 \right) \) , \(s \ne 0\) , which becomes \(V_0(r) = \ln \frac{1}{r}\) in the limit \(s\rightarrow 0\) . Averaging it over the \(\left( \begin{array}{c} N\\ 2\end{array}\right) \) distinct pairs in a configuration and minimizing over all possible \(N\) -point configurations defines \(v_s(N)\) . It is known that \(N\mapsto v_s(N)\) is strictly increasing for each \(s\in \mathbb {R}\) , and for \(s<2\) also bounded above, thus “overall concave.” It is (easily) proved that \(N\mapsto v_{-2}^{}(N)\) is even locally strictly concave, and that so is the map \(2n\mapsto v_s(2n)\) for \(s<-2\) . By analyzing computer-experimental data of putatively minimal average Riesz pair-energies \(v_s^x(N)\) for \(s\in \{-1,0,1,2,3\}\) and \(N\in \{2,\ldots ,200\}\) , it is found that the map \(N\mapsto {v}_{-1}^x(N)\) is locally strictly concave, while \(N\mapsto {v}_s^x(N)\) is not always locally strictly concave for \(s\in \{0,1,2,3\}\) : concavity defects occur whenever \(N\in {\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s)\) (an \(s\) -specific empirical set of integers). It is found that the empirical map \(s\mapsto {\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s),\ s\in \{-2,-1,0,1,2,3\}\) , is set-theoretically increasing; moreover, the percentage of odd numbers in \({\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(s),\ s\in \{0,1,2,3\}\) is found to increase with \(s\) . The integers in \({\mathcal {C}}^{x}_+(0)\) are few and far between, forming a curious sequence of numbers, reminiscent of the “magic numbers” in nuclear physics. It is conjectured that these new “magic numbers” are associated with optimally symmetric optimal-log-energy \(N\) -point configurations on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) . A list of interesting open problems is extracted from the empirical findings, and some rigorous first steps toward their solutions are presented. It is emphasized how concavity can assist in the solution to Smale’s \(7\) th Problem, which asks for an efficient algorithm to find near-optimal \(N\) -point configurations on \(\mathbb {S}^2\) and higher-dimensional spheres.     

How bosonic is a pair of fermions?

Composite particles made of two fermions can be treated as ideal elementary bosons as long as the constituent fermions are sufficiently entangled. In that case, the Pauli principle acting on the parts does not jeopardise the bosonic behaviour of the whole. An indicator for bosonic quality is the composite boson normalisation ratio \(\chi _{N+1}/\chi _{N}\) of a state of \(N\) composites. This quantity is prohibitively complicated to compute exactly for realistic two-fermion wavefunctions and large composite numbers \(N\) . Here, we provide an efficient characterisation in terms of the purity \(P\) and the largest eigenvalue \(\lambda _1\) of the reduced single-fermion state. We find the states that extremise \(\chi _N\) for given \(P\) and \(\lambda _1\) , and we provide easily evaluable, saturable upper and lower bounds for the normalisation ratio. Our results strengthen the relationship between the bosonic quality of a composite particle and the entanglement of its constituents.     

Quantum Measures on Finite Effect Algebras with the Riesz Decomposition Properties

One kind of generalized measures called quantum measures on finite effect algebras, which fulfil the grade-2 additive sum rule, is considered. One basis of vector space of quantum measures on a finite effect algebra with the Riesz decomposition property (RDP for short) is given. It is proved that any diagonally positive symmetric signed measure \(\lambda \) on the tensor product \(E\otimes E\) can determine a quantum measure \(\mu \) on a finite effect algebra \(E\) with the RDP such that \(\mu (x)=\lambda (x\otimes x)\) for any \(x\in E\) . Furthermore, some conditions for a grade-2 additive measure \(\mu \) on a finite effect algebra \(E\) are provided to guarantee that there exists a unique diagonally positive symmetric signed measure \(\lambda \) on \(E\otimes E\) such that \(\mu (x)=\lambda (x\otimes x)\) for any \(x\in E\) . At last, it is showed that any grade- \(t\) quantum measure on a finite effect algebra \(E\) with the RDP is essentially established by the values on a subset of \(E\) .     

Maximal Distance Travelled by N Vicious Walkers Till Their Survival

We consider N Brownian particles moving on a line starting from initial positions \(\mathbf{{u}}\equiv \{u_1,u_2,\ldots u_N\}\) such that \(0 . Their motion gets stopped at time \(t_s\) when either two of them collide or when the particle closest to the origin hits the origin for the first time. For \(N=2\) , we study the probability distribution function \(p_1(m|\mathbf{{u}})\) and \(p_2(m|\mathbf{{u}})\) of the maximal distance travelled by the \(1^{\text {st}}\) and \(2^{\text {nd}}\) walker till \(t_s\) . For general N particles with identical diffusion constants \(D\) , we show that the probability distribution \(p_N(m|\mathbf{u})\) of the global maximum \(m_N\) , has a power law tail \(p_i(m|\mathbf{{u}}) \sim {N^2B_N\mathcal {F}_{N}(\mathbf{u})}/{m^{\nu _N}}\) with exponent \(\nu _N =N^2+1\) . We obtain explicit expressions of the function \(\mathcal {F}_{N}(\mathbf{u})\) and of the N dependent amplitude \(B_N\) which we also analyze for large N using techniques from random matrix theory. We verify our analytical results through direct numerical simulations.     

Investigation of conductivity of adhesive layer including indium tin oxide particles for multi-junction solar cells

We report connection conductivity ( \(C_{\rm c}\) ) of adhesive which including \(\hbox {In}_2\hbox {O}_3\) – \(\hbox {SnO}_2\) (ITO) particles developed for fabrication of stacked-type-multi-junction solar cells. The commercial 20- \(\upmu \) m sized ITO particles were heated in vacuum at temperature ranging from 800 to 1,300  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) for 10 min to increase \(C_{\rm c}\) . 6.2 wt% ITO particles were dispersed in commercial Cemedine adhesive gel to form 100 samples structured with n-type Si/adhesive/n-type Si (n-Si sample) and p-type Si/adhesive/p-type Si (p-Si sample). Current density as a function of voltage (J–V) characteristics gave \(C_{\rm c}\) . It ranged from 4.3 to 1.0 S/cm \(^2\) for the n-Si sample with 800 \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.59 S/cm \(^2\) . On the other hand, it ranged from 2.0 to 0.6 S/cm \(^2\) for the p-Si sample with 800  \(^{\circ }{\rm C}\) heat-treated ITO particles. Its standard deviation was 0.22 S/cm \(^2\) . The distribution of \(C_{\rm c}\) mainly resulted from contact efficiency of ITO particles to substrate. We theoretically estimated that present \(C_{\rm c}\) achieved a low loss of the power conversion efficiency ( \(E_{\rm ff}\) ) lower than 0.3 % in the application of fabrication of multi-junction solar cell with an intrinsic \(E_{\rm ff}\) of 30 % and an open circuit voltage above 1.9 V.     

Pesin’s Entropy Formula for Systems Between C^1 and C^{1+\alpha }

In this article we give a new observation of Pesin’s entropy formula, motivated from Mañé’s proof of (Ergod Theory Dyn Sys 1:95–102, 1981). Let \(M\) be a compact Riemann manifold and \(f:\,M\rightarrow M\) be a \(C^1\) diffeomorphism on \(M\) . If \(\mu \) is an \(f\) -invariant probability measure which is absolutely continuous relative to Lebesgue measure and nonuniformly-H \(\ddot{\text {o}}\) lder-continuous(see Definition 1.1), then we have Pesin’s entropy formula, i.e., the metric entropy \(h_\mu (f)\) satisfies $$\begin{aligned} h_{\mu }(f)=\int \sum _{\lambda _i(x)> 0}\lambda _i(x)d\mu , \end{aligned}$$ where \(\lambda _1(x)\ge \lambda _2(x)\ge \cdots \ge \lambda _{dim\,M}(x)\) are the Lyapunov exponents at \(x\) with respect to \(\mu .\) Nonuniformly-H \(\ddot{\text {o}}\) lder-continuous is a new notion from probabilistic perspective weaker than \(C^{1+\alpha }.\)      

Semiclassical strings in supergravity PFT

In this paper, we introduce the bulk viscosity in the formalism of modified gravity theory in which the gravitational action contains a general function \(f(R,T)\) , where \(R\) and \(T\) denote the curvature scalar and the trace of the energy–momentum tensor, respectively, within the framework of a flat Friedmann–Robertson–Walker model. As an equation of state for a prefect fluid, we take \(p=(\gamma -1)\rho \) , where \(0 \le \gamma \le 2\) and a viscous term as a bulk viscosity due to the isotropic model, of the form \(\zeta =\zeta _{0}+\zeta _{1}H\) , where \(\zeta _{0}\) and \(\zeta _{1}\) are constants, and \(H\) is the Hubble parameter. The exact non-singular solutions to the corresponding field equations are obtained with non-viscous and viscous fluids, respectively, by assuming a simplest particular model of the form of \(f(R,T) = R+2f(T)\) , where \(f(T)=\alpha T\) ( \(\alpha \) is a constant). A big-rip singularity is also observed for \(\gamma <0\) at a finite value of cosmic time under certain constraints. We study all possible scenarios with the possible positive and negative ranges of \(\alpha \) to analyze the expansion history of the universe. It is observed that the universe accelerates or exhibits a transition from a decelerated phase to an accelerated phase under certain constraints of \(\zeta _0\) and \(\zeta _1\) . We compare the viscous models with the non-viscous one through the graph plotted between the scale factor and cosmic time and find that the bulk viscosity plays a major role in the expansion of the universe. A similar graph is plotted for the deceleration parameter with non-viscous and viscous fluids and we find a transition from decelerated to accelerated phase with some form of bulk viscosity.     

Fluctuation–Dissipation Relation for Systems with Spatially Varying Friction

When a particle diffuses in a medium with spatially dependent friction coefficient \(\alpha (r)\) at constant temperature \(T\) , it drifts toward the low friction end of the system even in the absence of any real physical force \(f\) . This phenomenon, which has been previously studied in the context of non-inertial Brownian dynamics, is termed “spurious drift”, although the drift is real and stems from an inertial effect taking place at the short temporal scales. Here, we study the diffusion of particles in inhomogeneous media within the framework of the inertial Langevin equation. We demonstrate that the quantity which characterizes the dynamics with non-uniform \(\alpha (r)\) is not the displacement of the particle \(\Delta r=r-r^0\) (where \(r^0\) is the initial position), but rather \(\Delta A(r)=A(r)-A(r^0)\) , where \(A(r)\) is the primitive function of \(\alpha (r)\) . We derive expressions relating the mean and variance of \(\Delta A\) to \(f\) , \(T\) , and the duration of the dynamics \(\Delta t\) . For a constant friction coefficient \(\alpha (r)=\alpha \) , these expressions reduce to the well known forms of the force-drift and fluctuation–dissipation relations. We introduce a very accurate method for Langevin dynamics simulations in systems with spatially varying \(\alpha (r)\) , and use the method to validate the newly derived expressions.     

Modeling of HOT (111) HgCdTe MWIR detector for fast response operation

The paper reports on photoelectrical performance of the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) (111) HgCdTe high operating temperature detector for the fast response conditions. Detector structure was simulated with software APSYS by Crosslight Inc. The detailed analysis of the time response as a function of device architecture and applied voltage was performed pointing out optimal working conditions. The time response of the MWIR HgCdTe detector with 50 % cut-off wavelength of \(\lambda _{c} \approx 5.3\, \upmu \hbox {m}\) at \(T = 200\)  K was estimated at the level of \(\tau _{s} \approx \) 2,500 ps for \(V = 100\)  mV and series resistance \(R_{Series} = 510\,\Omega \) . The series resistance’s reduction enables to reach \(\tau _{s}\approx 60\!-\!500\)  ps.     

Antineutrino science in KamLAND

The primary goal of KamLAND is a search for the oscillation of \({\bar{\nu }}_\mathrm{e}\) ’s emitted from distant power reactors. The long baseline, typically 180 km, enables KamLAND to address the oscillation solution of the “solar neutrino problem” with \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s under laboratory conditions. KamLAND found fewer reactor \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) events than expected from standard assumptions about \(\overline{\nu }_e\) propagation at more than 9 \(\sigma \) confidence level (C.L.). The observed energy spectrum disagrees with the expected spectral shape at more than 5 \(\sigma \) C.L., and prefers the distortion from neutrino oscillation effects. A three-flavor oscillation analysis of the data from KamLAND and KamLAND + solar neutrino experiments with CPT invariance, yields \(\Delta m_{21}^2 \) = [ \(7.54_{-0.18}^{+0.19} \times \) 10 \(^{-5}\) eV \(^{2}\) , \(7.53_{-0.18}^{+0.19} \times \) 10 \(^{-5}\) eV \(^{2}\) ], tan \(^{2}\theta _{12}\) = [ \(0.481_{-0.080}^{+0.092} \) , \(0.437_{-0.026}^{+0.029} \) ], and sin \(^{2}\theta _{13}\) = [ \(0.010_{-0.034}^{+0.033} \) , \(0.023_{-0.015}^{+0.015} \) ]. All solutions to the solar neutrino problem except for the large mixing angle region are excluded. KamLAND also demonstrated almost two cycles of the periodic feature expected from neutrino oscillation effects. KamLAND performed the first experimental study of antineutrinos from the Earth’s interior so-called geoneutrinos (geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s), and succeeded in detecting geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) ’s produced by the decays of \(^{238}\) U and \(^{232}\) Th within the Earth. Assuming a chondritic Th/U mass ratio, we obtain \(116_{-27}^{+28} {\bar{\nu }}_{e}\) events from \(^{238}\) U and \(^{232}\) Th, corresponding a geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e}\) flux of \(3.4_{-0.8}^{+0.8}\times \) 10 \(^{6}\) cm \(^{-2}\)  s \(^{-1}\) at the KamLAND location. We evaluate various bulk silicate Earth composition models using the observed geo \({\bar{\nu }}_{e} \) rate.     

The CMSSM and NUHM1 after LHC Run 1

We analyze the impact of data from the full Run 1 of the LHC at 7 and 8 TeV on the CMSSM with \(\mu > 0\) and \(<0\) and the NUHM1 with \(\mu > 0\) , incorporating the constraints imposed by other experiments such as precision electroweak measurements, flavour measurements, the cosmological density of cold dark matter and the direct search for the scattering of dark matter particles in the LUX experiment. We use the following results from the LHC experiments: ATLAS searches for events with \({E\!\!/}_{T}\) accompanied by jets with the full 7 and 8 TeV data, the ATLAS and CMS measurements of the mass of the Higgs boson, the CMS searches for heavy neutral Higgs bosons and a combination of the LHCb and CMS measurements of \(\mathrm{BR}(B_s \rightarrow \mu ^+\mu ^-)\) and \(\mathrm{BR}(B_d \rightarrow \mu ^+\mu ^-)\) . Our results are based on samplings of the parameter spaces of the CMSSM for both \(\mu >0\) and \(\mu <0\) and of the NUHM1 for \(\mu > 0\) with 6.8 \(\times 10^6\) , 6.2 \(\times 10^6\) and 1.6 \(\times 10^7\) points, respectively, obtained using the MultiNest tool. The impact of the Higgs-mass constraint is assessed using FeynHiggs 2.10.0, which provides an improved prediction for the masses of the MSSM Higgs bosons in the region of heavy squark masses. It yields in general larger values of \(M_h\) than previous versions of FeynHiggs, reducing the pressure on the CMSSM and NUHM1. We find that the global \(\chi ^2\) functions for the supersymmetric models vary slowly over most of the parameter spaces allowed by the Higgs-mass and the \({E\!\!/}_{T}\) searches, with best-fit values that are comparable to the \(\chi ^2/\mathrm{dof}\) for the best Standard Model fit. We provide 95 % CL lower limits on the masses of various sparticles and assess the prospects for observing them during Run 2 of the LHC.     

The Colored Hofstadter Butterfly for the Honeycomb Lattice

We rely on a recent method for determining edge spectra and we use it to compute the Chern numbers for Hofstadter models on the honeycomb lattice having rational magnetic flux per unit cell. Based on the bulk-edge correspondence, the Chern number \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\) is given as the winding number of an eigenvector of a \(2 \times 2\) transfer matrix, as a function of the quasi-momentum \(k\in (0,2\pi )\) . This method is computationally efficient (of order \(\mathcal {O}(n^4)\) in the resolution of the desired image). It also shows that for the honeycomb lattice the solution for \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\) for flux \(p/q\) in the \(r\) -th gap conforms with the Diophantine equation \(r=\sigma _\mathrm{H}\cdot p+ s\cdot q\) , which determines \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\mod q\) . A window such as \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\in (-q/2,q/2)\) , or possibly shifted, provides a natural further condition for \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\) , which however turns out not to be met. Based on extensive numerical calculations, we conjecture that the solution conforms with the relaxed condition \(\sigma _\mathrm{H}\in (-q,q)\) .     

Tracy–Widom at High Temperature

We investigate the marginal distribution of the bottom eigenvalues of the stochastic Airy operator when the inverse temperature \(\beta \) tends to \(0\) . We prove that the minimal eigenvalue, whose fluctuations are governed by the Tracy–Widom \(\beta \) law, converges weakly, when properly centered and scaled, to the Gumbel distribution. More generally we obtain the convergence in law of the marginal distribution of any eigenvalue with given index \(k\) . Those convergences are obtained after a careful analysis of the explosion times process of the Riccati diffusion associated to the stochastic Airy operator. We show that the empirical measure of the explosion times converges weakly to a Poisson point process using estimates proved in Dumaz and Virág (Ann Inst H Poincaré Probab Statist 49(4):915–933, 2013). We further compute the empirical eigenvalue density of the stochastic Airy ensemble on the macroscopic scale when \(\beta \rightarrow 0\) . As an application, we investigate the maximal eigenvalues statistics of \(\beta _N\) -ensembles when the repulsion parameter \(\beta _N\rightarrow 0\) when \(N\rightarrow +\infty \) . We study the double scaling limit \(N\rightarrow +\infty , \beta _N \rightarrow 0\) and argue with heuristic and numerical arguments that the statistics of the marginal distributions can be deduced following the ideas of Edelman and Sutton (J Stat Phys 127(6):1121–1165, 2007) and Ramírez et al. (J Am Math Soc 24:919–944, 2011) from our later study of the stochastic Airy operator.     

Near-Extreme Eigenvalues and the First Gap of Hermitian Random Matrices

We study the phenomenon of “crowding” near the largest eigenvalue \(\lambda _\mathrm{max}\) of random \(N \times N\) matrices belonging to the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble of random matrix theory. We focus on two distinct quantities: (i) the density of states (DOS) near \(\lambda _\mathrm{max}\) , \(\rho _\mathrm{DOS}(r,N)\) , which is the average density of eigenvalues located at a distance \(r\) from \(\lambda _\mathrm{max}\) and (ii) the probability density function of the gap between the first two largest eigenvalues, \(p_\mathrm{GAP}(r,N)\) . In the edge scaling limit where \(r = \mathcal{O}(N^{-1/6})\) , which is described by a double scaling limit of a system of unconventional orthogonal polynomials, we show that \(\rho _\mathrm{DOS}(r,N)\) and \(p_\mathrm{GAP}(r,N)\) are characterized by scaling functions which can be expressed in terms of the solution of a Lax pair associated to the Painlevé XXXIV equation. This provides an alternative and simpler expression for the gap distribution, which was recently studied by Witte et al. in Nonlinearity 26:1799, 2013. Our expressions allow to obtain precise asymptotic behaviors of these scaling functions both for small and large arguments.     

Reunion Probabilities of N One-Dimensional Random Walkers with Mixed Boundary Conditions

In this work we extend the results of the reunion probability of \(N\) one-dimensional random walkers to include mixed boundary conditions between their trajectories. The level of the mixture is controlled by a parameter \(c\) , which can be varied from \(c=0\) (independent walkers) to \(c\rightarrow \infty \) (vicious walkers). The expressions are derived by using Quantum Mechanics formalism (QMf) which allows us to map this problem into a Lieb-Liniger gas (LLg) of \(N\) one-dimensional particles. We use Bethe ansatz and Gaudin’s conjecture to obtain the normalized wave-functions and use this information to construct the propagator. As it is well-known, depending on the boundary conditions imposed at the endpoints of a line segment, the statistics of the maximum heights of the reunited trajectories have some connections with different ensembles in Random Matrix Theory. Here we seek to extend those results and consider four models: absorbing, periodic, reflecting, and mixed. In all four cases, the probability that the maximum height is less or equal than \(L\) takes the form \(F_N(L)=A_N\sum _{\varvec{k}\in \Omega _{\text {B}}} \mathrm{e}^{-\sum _{j=1}^Nk_j^2}\mathcal {V}_N(\varvec{k})\) , where \(A_N\) is a normalization constant, \(\mathcal {V}_N(\varvec{k})\) contains a deformed and weighted Vandermonde determinant, and \(\Omega _{\text {B}}\) is the solution set of quasi-momenta \(\varvec{k}\) obeying the Bethe equations for that particular boundary condition.     

Nitrogen optical emission during nanosecond laser ablation of metals: prompt electrons or photo-ionization?

Experiments on the interaction of metal targets with a Nd:YAG laser beam ( \(\lambda \)  = 1,064 nm, intensity \(10^{10}\) – \(10^{11}\,\hbox {W/cm}{^2}\) ) are carried out in a finite Nitrogen pressure environment. The observed \(\hbox {N}_2\) spectra are unambiguous evidence of the existence of an ionization and excitation source, arriving at the observation volume prior to the plume. Such a source can be either prompt electrons or VUV radiation. The analysis reveals that the prompt electron interpretation requires energies in excess of 1 keV, incompatible with any acceleration mechanisms relevant for such laser intensities. On the other hand, VUV radiation is sufficiently strong to explain the observed spectra.     

Effect of vacancies on magnetic behaviors of Cu-doped 6H-SiC

Magnetism in Cu-doped, Cu \(\rm _{Si}\) –V \(\rm _{Si}\) codoped, or Cu \(\rm _{Si}\) –V \(\rm _{C}\) codoped 6H-SiC are investigated using the first principle. The total density of states for the ferromagnetic Cu \(\rm _{Si}\) at doping concentration of 0.926 at. \(\%\) shows half-metallic behavior, which leads to the total magnetic moment of 2.84  \(\rm \mu _{B}\) per supercell. The total magnetic moment increases with increasing Cu content. The long-range ferromagnetic interaction between Cu atoms can be attributed to the C-mediated double exchange through the strong \(3d\) ? \(2p\) interaction between Cu and neighboring C ones. It is important to note that both V \(\rm _{Si}\) and V \(\rm _{C}\) play a negative role in ferromagnetic coupling between Cu ions. So, to obtain a larger magnetic moment from Cu-doped 6H–SiC, we should try to avoid the appearance of V \(\rm _{Si}\) and V \(\rm _{C}\) during the process of sample preparation. Our theoretical calculations give a valuable insight on how to get a large magnetic moment from Cu-doped 6H–SiC.